lemon pound cake

Thursday’s practical was surprisingly relaxing and not too hard compared to some of the practicals we’ve previously had. Chef’s demo started off with a Gateau au Citron (Lemon pound cake), Madeleines, then the Gênes à la Pistache (traditional almond and pistachio cake). I was a bit disappointed to find out that the gateau au citron was actually a pound cake! Not very french…

Chef’s creations sliced up for us to try 🙂 The madeleines were soft and buttery, fresh out of the oven. The texture of the pistachio almond cake was very light and fluffy. However, the cake had more of an almond flavour and barely any pistachio flavour which was disappointing since I love everything pistachio flavoured!
Above: chef’s gateau au citron sliced up.

During the demo we learnt that there are three ways that cakes can rise:
Mechanically – manually whipping and incorporating air, for example airating egg whites.
Biologically – using yeast
Chemically – rising agents such as baking powder.

Gateau au Citron

The Gateau au Citron uses a chemical method (baking power), as well as steam released from the water in the butter and eggs to allow the cake to rise. Gateau au citron, aka pound cake actually originated in the UK and weighed a pound…according to chef.

The Gateau au Citron is composed of 3 parts: The cake itself, the lemon julienne garnish and the glaçage.

Everything was pretty straightforward and everything went well. Except for one thing… My excess parchment paper stuck onto the top of cake while baking!! Apparently, this happened to a lot of the students during the practical. So don’t forget to trim the top of the parchment down so it’s not too tall because once it goes in the convection oven, the paper will flap around and stick onto the cake batter. This caused a slight indentation on the surface of the cake. You can see where the paper got stuck on the right side of the cake 🙁